• Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers
Menu

World of Reel

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Home
IMG_7313.jpg
James Cameron to Make ‘The Devils’ “For Fun” and Because “It’s Off the Tits”
IMG_7312.jpg
Abdellatif Kechiche’s ‘Mektoub: Canto Due’: 1000 Hours of Footage, Seven Years of Editing & Only Finished After a Stroke
Screenshot 2025-07-29 164520.png
Celine Song Set to Write ‘My Best Friend's Wedding' Sequel
Screenshot 2025-07-29 160357.png
‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Breaks Netflix Records With Biggest U.S. Movie Debut Ever
Screenshot 2025-07-29 141859.png
Sam Raimi’s ‘Send Help’ Test Screens to Rave Reactions: A Darkly Hilarious “Return to Form"
Featured
Capture.PNG
Aug 19, 2019
3-Hour ‘Midsommar' Director's Cut Screened in NYC
Aug 19, 2019

This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.

Aug 19, 2019

World of Reel

  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
  • More
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers

‘My Zoe': Julie Delpy's Twisted Sci-Fi Drama [Review]

February 25, 2021 Jordan Ruimy
MV5BMGY1NjNhMTctZWNiMC00YTkzLThjZTAtYTE2NzdiZmY0MTVmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI0Mjg2NzE@._V1_SX1777_CR001777744_AL_-scaled.jpg

Julie Delpy’s “My Zoe” is a risky endeavour for the 51-year-old actress-writer-director. It splashes through various different genres while simultaneously asking the viewer to follow along its main protagonist’s morally-controversial endeavours.

The film has recently divorced scientist Isabelle (Delpy) struggling to co-parent her daughter Zoe (Sophia Ally) with ex James (Richard Armitage), while in the final stages of their divorce. Isabelle is unhappy with James’ approach to parenting, and he believes she’s too concerned with the minute details of his approach. But when Zoe suffers an unexpected brain hemorrhage and is put on life support, the film enters unexpectedly darker territory.

Isabelle learns of a way to keep some version of her daughter alive, with the reluctant help of a medical acquaintance (Daniel Bruhl) and his wife (Gemma Arterton). The ethics of the operation, however, are a whole other story. One can call “My Zoe” a medical mystery, and not give away too much of the plot. The surprises in store are interesting, but so are the questions being asked. If you’ve followed the news and the genetic CRISPR controversy then the questions this film asks won’t be anything new, but one can see the debate only intensifying in the years to come.

Delpy takes many risks as writer-director here, pushing her narrative towards the unanswerable. Known for having previously directed fizzy rom-coms, Delpy tries to avoid conventions. There’s a strange, none-too-successful leap towards the future in the third act; in fact, there are hints throughout that the film takes place a few years into the future — highly but subtly sophisticated tablets, laptops, and phones are seen being used in foregrounds and backgrounds.

Delpy doesn’t try to turn her story into mainstream sci-fi or, God forbid, horror; the dystopia is rather portrayed with euro arthouse realism. It helps that Delpy writes the characters with enough sincerity that her bold, intriguing but not entirely successful protagonist does manage to emotionally engage. Too bad then that the final third of “My Zoe” has to resort to bogus science and implausibility after implausibility.

Despite an unsuccessful ending, I am recommending “My Zoe” because of how mysterious and interesting the movie comes off at times. I don’t mind when payoffs don’t work because if a movie has intrigued you and fully held your attention before the disappointment, then it must have done something right. I had a college professor who, before screening Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” warned the students about the aged coda of the film; “remember, it’s just the ending.”

SCORE: B-

In REVIEWS
← ‘Luca': Lower Those Expectations For Pixar's 24th Feature [Trailer]‘Cherry': Tom Holland Stars in Violent, Pulpy Drug Epic [Review] →

FOLLOW US!


Trending

Featured
Capture+(3).png
‘Megalopolis': Francis Ford Coppola To Re-Edit, Add Scenes, “Make it More Weird"
IMG_7047.jpg
Margot Robbie to Star in Tim Burton’s ‘Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman’
IMG_7024.jpg
20 Years Later — The Best Films of 2005
IMG_7002.jpg
Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’ to Skip Fall Festivals Entirely
IMG_6985.jpg
Ari Aster Planning ‘Eddington’ Sequel, a Horror Film, and a Sci-Fi Project. Will He Get to Make Any of Them?

Critics Polls

Featured
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘Vertigo’ Named Best Film of the 1950s, Over 120 Participants
B16BAC21-5652-44F6-9E83-A1A5C5DF61D7.jpeg
Critics Poll: Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Tops Our 1960s Critics Poll
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘The Godfather’ Named Best Movie of the 1970s
public.jpeg
Critics Poll: ‘Do the Right Thing' Named Best Movie of the 1980s
Critics Poll: ‘Mulholland Drive' Named Best Film of the 2000s
g4.jpg
Critics' Poll: ‘Goodfellas' Named Best Movie of the 1990s
Critics Poll: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road' Named Best Movie of the 2010s
World of Reel tagline.PNG
 

Content

Contribute

Hire me

 

Support

Advertise

Donate

 

About

Team

Contact

Privacy Policy

Site designed by Jordan Ruimy © 2023